Juicebox Interactivehttps://juiceboxinteractive.com
Wed, 13 Mar 2019 10:03:41 +0000en-UShourly1From Harvest Gold to Millennial Pink: colors that defined the decadeshttps://juiceboxinteractive.com/blog/color/
Wed, 30 May 2018 03:40:21 +0000https://juiceboxinteractive.com.staging.juiceboxint.com/?p=401When you picture the 1960s, what colors come to mind? Perhaps psychedelic colors, warm oranges, reds and yellows? What about the 1970s? Perhaps that would be the colors of disco and lava lamps. How about the 1980s? That ...

]]>When you picture the 1960s, what colors come to mind? Perhaps psychedelic colors, warm oranges, reds and yellows? What about the 1970s? Perhaps that would be the colors of disco and lava lamps. How about the 1980s? That would be bright cyan, red, purple and yellow, right? The 1990s? How about today? It’s no surprise that colors come in and out of fashion all the time, but what were the influences behind the palette of the 1950s versus the 2000s? We took on the challenge to capture the decades with a simple color palette, sourcing inspiration from American pop culture, fashion, marketing, technology and design. Here are the colors that defined the last 100 years.

2010s: Exuberant Minimalism

The 2010s are known for many things: nostalgia, hipsters and minimalism. From interior design to technology, a growing interest in minimalistic, well-crafted and thoughtfully-designed items became status symbols. The most trendy interiors today feature rustic wood finishes, metallic or stone surfaces, polished copper and brass accents, and cozy deep green tropical plants all carefully arranged before airy sun-bleached white walls.

While screen resolution, camera quality and technology grew more complex, digital design simplified to what we call flat design. Flat design is constructed from geometric shapes edged with delicate drop shadows topped with simple sans-serif typography. The ensuing color palette, however, introduces a more fantastical element to the style. Joyful gradients, surrealistic saturated color is a delightful experience for users.

And then there’s millennial pink, arguably the most iconic color of the decade. For years the color has been inescapable. Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel featured the color, from the stately hotel’s facade to Mendel’s pastry boxes. Apple featured it as an iPhone color for the first time in 2015 (called Rose Gold), putting the color into the hands of millions. Pantone granted the color spotlight in 2016 when its variant Rose Quartz and a baby-blue Serenity were named 2016 Color of the Year. The color can easily be found anywhere in the world of design and there’s no sign we’re ready to quit it.

2000s: Bursting in to the Millennium

The 2000s were marked by a time of decadence in the culture and innovation in technology. Some of the iconic shows of the time closely followed the lives of extravagant Americans, real or fictional — Paris Hilton from The Simple Life, rich teens from My Sweet 16, the outrageous cast from The Jersey Shore, Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, Gretchen Wieners from Mean Girls and, of course, Kim, Khloe and Kourtney Kardashian from Keeping Up with the Kardashians. Skinny jeans finally stuck as a fashionable item, but unfortunately so did Crocs.

It was also a notable decade for Apple. The company released the most popular portable music device in history: the iPod. Newer iterations of the device became smaller and more candy-colored. Each new generation of iPod nanos had more colors and by the 4th Generation there was an array of 9 colors to choose from. The iPod was finally discontinued in 2017. In 2007 the iPhone was released, making smartphones accessible to billions of people around the world ever since. Skeuomorphic design was the trendy aesthetic especially in web and print design. Skeuomorphic design is known for its faux real-world objects with realistic textures and color affixed on to the two-dimensional world.

Overall the 2000s were a prosperous time with outrageous fashion, VMA appearances, pop culture happenings and consumerism that exemplified the time. The Great Recession of 2008 certainly put a damper on economic optimism for many, and as Americans climbed out of the tough economy they found new ways to reinvent their tastes and ideals in the trends of the next decade.

1990s: Jeweled Musings

Color from the 1960s to the 1980s are known for their bright, vibrant hues. Things didn’t quiet down until the 1990s, which was known for its more neutral, moody color palette. Grunge music was at its height and alternative rock was coming in to the fore; its scene was anti-materialistic and celebrated individualism over consumerism. The offices of corporate America adopted neutral colors: gray, beige and brown with mauve and burgundy accents. Tech companies who positioned their products as being fun and easy to use, such as Nintendo and Apple, released candy-colored plastic devices. Iconic shows on television such as Friends, Seinfeld and Daria also adopted a more sober and muted color palette. Alternatively, the 1990s are also known for noisy jewel-colored fashion, composed of rich blues, bright purples, deep greens, and hot reds.

1980s: 8-Bit Wonderand

The 1980s was one of the first times groundbreaking technology intersected with ways to have fun. The advent of personal computing allowed computer gaming and video games to flourish. Companies created colorful, fantastical advertisements to show off the displays on their devices. Apple’s iconic logo, from 1977-1998 was rainbow-colored to make their products appear friendly to consumers and showcasing the Apple II’s color display. MTV made its debut in 1981 and the era of music videos on television was born. An example of MTV’s edgy appeal were the short spots during commercial breaks where the logo was morphed and shaped by animation and quirky filmmaking. The experimental Italian design group Memphis created the energetic, electric aesthetic look of the 1980s that we recognize and lovingly replicate today.

1970s: Any Colour You Like

The 1970s are marked by glowing pure primary colors as screen technology made a significant transition from black-and-white to color. Colorful Saturday morning cartoons, Sesame Street, The Price is Right and of course, Saturday Night Live all got their start in the 1970s and inspired a generation of youth and teens with their colorful worlds. Kids played with vividly-colored toys such as LEGO, Hot Wheels, Barbie and Play-Doh. Eclectic, vibrant colors from from glowing dance floors and neon lights illuminated the disco and punk scenes. Fashions were far more flamboyant: people wore tightly-fitting brightly-colored polyester pants, shirts and dresses.

1960s: Mod Madness

The 1960s are remembered as a radical time in American history and culture. Out with cotton candy colors of and in with rich, psychedelic palettes. Mod motifs and psychedelic patterns clashed with the natural desert-colored hues. Color names such as burnt sienna, harvest gold and avocado are strongly associated with 1960s and 1970s interior design. Designer Saul Bass created stellar opening credits of famous movies in the 1960s for Alfred Hitcock’s films, including Vertigo, North by Northwest and Psycho. Logo designer Paul Rand changed the look of corporate America with his creating timeless, geometric logos. Electrifying pop figures such as the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix and Andy Warhol are also represented by brilliant earth tones.

1950s: Pretty in Pastels

During the 1950s, America came home. Soldiers returning from World War II attended college, bought homes and started families. Another decade of American consumerism, glamor and prosperity swept the nation. Advertisers created razor-sharp campaigns for different members of the family: mothers, fathers and the newly-created age group: teenagers. Powdery pastels became fashionable and associated with American housewives to convey youth, warmth and joy. Fashion, cars, graphic design, furniture and decor design were all seeping with delicate pinks, blues and greens. In the 1950s you could have even bought colored toilet paper. The 1950s was a classic age for families of motorists who flocked to fantastical amusement parks and illuminated atomic-age motels in their streamlined vehicles.

1940s: Patriotism & Primaries

The government had to keep civic and military morale uplifted during the war and rationing. Propaganda posters adopted a rich patriotic palette and promoted a cheerful and romantic sense of duty in the populace. Willie Gillis, a character invented by Rockwell, is a humorous and likable archetype of the all-American drafted soldier. Willie Gillis’s is brighter and more cheery than the more neutral palettes that appeared elsewhere. Primary colors such as blue, navy, red and yellow were widely used alongside muted military colors such as olive, brown and tan. Due to rationing, wartime fashion became more minimalistic and pragmatic. In the world of entertainment adults and children saw movies, cartoons and comic books that espoused pro-America messages to garner more support for the war. In “Der Fuehrer’s Face”, a wartime propaganda short by Disney released in 1943, Donald Duck dreams of his life being controlled by the Nazis, set in somber, muted and muddy tones of green, brown and yellow.

1930s: Escape in Technicolor

During the wave of the Great Depression Americans persevered by finding affordable family-friendly means of entertainment and recreation. The 1930s was also a time which bore timeless, iconic pop culture that audiences today cherish and reinvent for contemporary tastes and ideals. Film, board games, comics and magazines were created during this time period — some names remain as favorites across generations. Despite the dread and despair of the Depression, there were many joyful, colorful and rich colors that represented the era which represented how Americans kept magic in everyday life.

1920s: Rhapsody in Gold

Americans in the 1920s were seduced by luxury, leisure and adventure. Spanning from architecture to fashion to graphic design, yellow and gold expelled energy, wealth and happiness. Art Deco influenced designers, artists and architects across the Western world. Radical Modernist art movements such as Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism and Dadaism influenced some American artists as well. In poster design, artists often employed transparent layers of red, blue yellow and black to create a full spectrum of rich color. Bold, velvety colors, such as ultramarine and cadmium red also represent the indulgences of the era.

]]>Is your website accessible? Here’s a handy checklist to find out.https://juiceboxinteractive.com/blog/is-your-website-accessible-heres-a-handy-checklist-to-find-out/
Wed, 23 May 2018 19:29:24 +0000https://juiceboxinteractive.com.staging.juiceboxint.com/?p=348Web accessibility can be a dense topic if you’re exploring it for the first time! If you find yourself reading through the WCAG 2.0 accessibility guidelines, you’ll likely feel overwhelmed. What follows is a much simpler checklist-based introduction to ...

]]>Web accessibility can be a dense topic if you’re exploring it for the first time! If you find yourself reading through the WCAG 2.0 accessibility guidelines, you’ll likely feel overwhelmed. What follows is a much simpler checklist-based introduction to help you understand whether your website is accessible.

We should mention at the outset: This is only a summary. The WCAG 2.0 guidelines have over 60 different requirements between the various compliance levels, so you need to get an expert involved if you want to ensure full compliance. (Luckily, we can help.)

But, we’ve distilled this down into a list of the most important items that impact actual accessibility on most websites. You won’t necessarily be WCAG compliant if you can answer “yes” to all of the items below, but you’ll be well on your way—and more importantly, anyone using accessibility software should be able to navigate your site with ease.

If your site uses a content management system (CMS), as most sites do these days, the accessibility responsibilities will be split between the web developer and the content editor. Accordingly, we’ve broken out the requirements into separate lists, although there is a lot of overlap.

Content Editor Responsibilities

These items are content-based and fall within the responsibilities of the site editors. Each person editing the site should have proper training so that the overall accessibility of the site isn’t compromised.

1. Do all images have alternative text?

Alternative (alt) text is required for all images, describing it textually for someone who is blind or visually impaired. If the image is purely decorative, it must still have an empty alt attribute (e.g. alt=””) to indicate to the screen reader that it should be ignored.

Heading levels (H1-H6) should always be nested like a document outline. As an example, an H3 would designate a sub-section within an H2 section—meaning you should never come across an H3 that is not preceded by an H2.

3. Do all data tables have correct header designations?

Tables can be either vertical or horizontal, with header cells describing either the column that comes below it or the row that comes after it. As a result, table cells must be properly marked with a “scope” attribute so that the screen reader knows how to match the heading to the data.

4. Is all link text appropriately descriptive?

Screen readers usually have a mode where they can pull all of the links off of a page and put them into a list for easy navigation. Accordingly, each link must be descriptive so it makes sense out of context. Don’t make links that say “click here” or even “view more.”

5. Do all videos have closed captioning?

Videos must be closed-captioned so they can be experienced by visitors who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

If you use YouTube, they get you most of the way there by using speech recognition technology to automatically add closed captioning. However, these captions are often inaccurate, so they should always be reviewed and edited before the video is published.

Developer Responsibilities

These items can typically only be edited directly in the code, so if your site fails any of these checks, they will need to be fixed by a web developer.

1. Do your pages have a straightforward document structure, readable without a CSS file?

HTML is a structural language while CSS is presentational. Accessibility software, for the most part, uses only the underlying HTML document to present the content to the user, so it is important that the content as viewed in the HTML code itself is arranged in a logical manner. It should also be free of errors, which may be smoothed over by a normal browser but could cause failures in accessibility software.

2. Can all links and navigation drop-down functionality be used without a mouse?

Most web users will navigate a site with a mouse, and both developers and content administrators will often fail to test that the site works using only a keyboard. However, most accessibility software is keyboard-only, so it is extremely important to ensure that nothing about the site is inaccessible to keyboard users.

3. Is a “Skip to main content” link present before the navigation when tabbing?

A medium-size site with dropdown navigation menus may easily have 80 links in the header. Without a “skip to content” link, a keyboard user would need to tab through all 80 of those links on each page before the screen reader begins reading the content, making the site very difficult to use.

4. Does the site use ARIA landmarks and other assistive technology indicators where appropriate?

ARIA landmarks are like bookmarks within the page, and are typically denoted with the “role” attribute (for instance, role=”navigation”). HTML5 elements like “nav” and “main” are directly mapped to ARIA landmarks, so they can be used instead.

5. Does small text (18px or smaller) have a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against the background?

A minimum contrast ratio must be maintained between text and its background so that people with low vision can read it.

There are no official guidelines about calculating the contrast ratio for backgrounds that vary in color, e.g. background images or gradients, so our policy on this is to just take the average color that is directly below the text and treat it as an honor system.

6. Does large text (bold > 18px, normal weight > 23px) have a contrast ratio of at least 3:1 against the background?

This primarily applies to headings. Bold text that is 19px or larger must have at least a 3:1 contrast ratio, as well as standard-weight text 24px or higher.

]]>How well are you keeping up with today’s mobile-first world? [Infograph]https://juiceboxinteractive.com/blog/how-well-are-you-keeping-up-with-todays-mobile-first-world/
Sun, 13 May 2018 00:13:09 +0000https://juiceboxinteractive.com.staging.juiceboxint.com/?p=261If you’re reading this on your phone, chances are you won’t be surprised to hear that most Americans own a smartphone (77%) and are web users (89%). Increasing rates of smartphone ownership and access to the web has ...

]]>If you’re reading this on your phone, chances are you won’t be surprised to hear that most Americans own a smartphone (77%) and are web users (89%). Increasing rates of smartphone ownership and access to the web has changed our daily lives—and has increased our power as consumers.

Since the decade-old “smartphone revolution” our devices have become smarter and more capable, people are more likely to be smartphone dependent, expect seamless digital experiences, engage with intriguing content and seek new technology that is smarter, more powerful and integrated. Demand for smart watches, smart speakers and VR headsets have grown while ownership of desktop computers, tablets and laptops has slowed down.

How do you as a marketer or business owner engage these advanced users, who expect your brand or business to be just as competent with technology? We put together a short list of surprising facts to help inform your next digital marketing plan. We also dropped a few handy infographics that have more fun facts about technology, design and social media.

1. We’re more smartphone dependent than ever.

Many of us feel as though we cannot live without our phones, and there’s some truth to that. After all, we spend 3 hours per day on our devices on average. Chances are you know someone who solely depends on a smartphone for internet and information access. Today nearly 1 in 10 Americans are smartphone dependent, meaning that they opt out of home broadband service and rely only on their carrier’s data plans and wifi connection to access the web. No one is sure why this trend is growing, but it may be related to financial or logistical roadblocks. People who are at lower income or education levels and who are nonwhite are more likely to be smartphone dependent. Optimizing mobile web experiences isn’t just thorough design, it’s sometimes the only way people can interact with your business.

2. Good mobile experiences matter for your business.

As more people rely on their smartphones for daily use, they expect quality experiences on those devices when they engage with brands. 85% of customers expect that a company’s mobile site should be as good or better than the desktop version. Creating a good first impression of your brand online is the key to higher customer conversions. Your web presence must capture your audience’s attention, establish credibility, send a message and make it easy for users to access your products and services.

85% of customers expect that a company’s mobile site should be as good or better than the desktop version.

75% of users base a company’s credibility on its website design, so don’t expect them to come back if they have a frustrating or disappointing experience. Only 12% of online customers return to a site after a bad experience. If your website is smartly designed for on-the-go users, the returns could be astounding. Mobile shoppers convert 160% more often on sites optimized for smartphones, and every dollar spent on UX can bring up to $100 in returns.

3. Creating and sharing visual content is more prevalent than ever, thanks to smartphones.

Our advanced phone cameras allow us to share personal details easily on social media platforms, whose apps appear on 75% of mobile phones. In one minute on Facebook, 136,000 photos are shared. Humans are visual creatures, and technology has adapted itself to our habits. Apps, cameras and phones have all synced together to give us the instant ability to create, post and share visual content—from goofy filtered photos to livestream video. People love to share this stuff. Visual content on social media is more than 40 times likely to be shared, and video tends to get 1,200% more shares than text and image posts combined.

It’s not just that images and video are just shareable, likable and clickable. If carefully created, chosen and stylized, good graphic content increases engagement, retention, recognition and promotes a positive experience with your brand.

Video content tends to get 1,200% more shares than text and image posts combined.

Ask yourself what kind of visual content would resonate with your users. Consider hiring a photographer, animator or videographer to tell your brand’s story in a more authentic way. Connect your brand to highly visual social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and invite your audience to join the party by encouraging them to submit photos to a shared feed.

4. The future of technology is everywhere.

Smart cars, smart watches, drones, 3D printing, VR, AI robots, smart fridges — the list keeps growing! Mobile phones have set the trajectory of emerging personal technology: we want our devices to be more interconnected, powerful and smarter. These tools have a multitude of uncovered personal applications, but with a little imagination they can give your marketing strategy some spark — and pull yourself farther from the competition.

Consider this: what if you tried promoting your brand with one of these interesting devices? Why not demonstrate your products or services in a virtual reality demo rather than a whitepaper? Go beyond the Google Maps screenshot and get drone footage of your business location and operations. Send a 3D-printed prize to prospective clients, something so interesting they can’t put it down.

]]>The great train crash that saved the Iowa State Fairhttps://juiceboxinteractive.com/blog/creating-an-iowa-state-fair-spectacle/
Wed, 02 May 2018 19:14:55 +0000https://juiceboxinteractive.com.staging.juiceboxint.com/?p=326Every summer, when it’s searing hot and humid outside, and all across Iowa, August conversations gravitate to the latest bizarre indulgence served on a stick. But the Iowa State Fair wasn’t always the mainstay it has become today. There was ...

Every summer, when it’s searing hot and humid outside, and all across Iowa, August conversations gravitate to the latest bizarre indulgence served on a stick.

But the Iowa State Fair wasn’t always the mainstay it has become today. There was a time when it was struggling to survive, let alone thrive.

The core events—like animal showings, bake-offs, and carnival rides on the midway—will always draw a certain number of people. But to attract an ever larger crowd and break attendance records year after year, Fair organizers have to come up with new, more amazing, never-before-seen promotional events or public spectacles. That’s a tough challenge for any marketer.

Because of that never-ending quest, we’re blessed with classic Iowa State Fair traditions like the Outhouse Races, Mutton Busting, a Mother-Daughter Look-alike Competition and—one of my personal favorites—the Cow Chip Throwing Contest. (Growing up in Missouri where my family operated a small cattle farm, I spent much of my childhood making sure I stepped around the cow patties. Why anyone would want to pick one up and hurl it like a discus is beyond me.)

Along the way, though, the Fair team has hit some home runs.

Let’s put one of these home runs—a truly extraordinary event—that essentially saved the fair. In the late 1800s, the Fair was in terrible financial distress. Organizers were having a heck of a time getting people to pay for admission. Think farmer’s market. Show up, walk around, maybe you buy something, maybe you don’t. They couldn’t figure out how to get people to pay for anything.

Along came Joe Connolly and his idea to stage an event so spectacular that everyone would gladly pay to see it.

Connolly’s idea? Lay a section of railroad track in front of the grandstand and create a head-on collision of two locomotives, causing an earth-shaking fireball explosion the likes of which no one had ever seen. No kidding.

The Fair got on board. Connolly bought a couple of old trains that were headed for the scrap heap, laid down some track and set the trains on a crash course.

The prospect of witnessing of a huge train wreck was too much for anyone to pass up. The first explosion in 1896 was so successful that they did it again in 1922 and 1932. Each time, the Fair drew between 40,000 and 70,000 paying visitors—huge crowds for any event in that era.

Wanting to repeat his newfound success and parlay it into wealth, Joe bought all the throwaway trains he could get his hands on and took his show on the road, staging 146 train crashes across the country over the next 35 years. Later on, he figured out how to doctor up the explosions by putting flammable materials in the back of the trains and torpedoes on the track.

Always the promoter, Connolly turned the 1932 Iowa State Fair train crash into a presidential election year showdown, pitting a Roosevelt train vs. another named for Iowan Herbert Hoover.

In creating his train crash spectacles, Joe Connolly pushed a few of the key buttons required to create some buzz. He staged an event that was unusual, outrageous and remarkable and helped to make the Iowa State Fair a modern day must-do event.

Just like Joe, we Juiceboxers are prepared to go to great lengths to help you create some buzz for your company. Get in touch with us if you need some help coming up with clever marketing ideas that will get people talking about you.

If you’re interested in learning more about Joe Connelly and his exploding trains, you’ll enjoy watching this piece produced by Iowa Public Television.

]]>The Ultimate Guide to Making Websites Accessible [Whitepaper]https://juiceboxinteractive.com/blog/building-a-house-of-bricks-a-guide-to-making-websites-accessible/
Tue, 01 May 2018 19:23:20 +0000https://juiceboxinteractive.com.staging.juiceboxint.com/?p=342Is your house made of sticks, bricks or straw? We all grew up hearing the story of three little pigs and their mealtime interloper. When it comes to accessibility compliance, the false sense of security from sticks and ...

]]>Is your house made of sticks, bricks or straw? We all grew up hearing the story of three little pigs and their mealtime interloper. When it comes to accessibility compliance, the false sense of security from sticks and straw just doesn’t cut it anymore. Your website needs to have the care, attention and planning to be built of bricks. If you don’t know how, this guide will help you get started.

Accessibility explained

As it applies to websites, “accessibility” is a blanket term for a set of website features that allow users to browse the site using assistive technology such as screen readers, Braille readers and text-only browsers. Because some users are not physically able to use a keyboard and mouse, care must be taken that the website is constructed in such a way that allows assistive technology to understand the functions and information structure of the site and translate those to users.

ADA requirements for accessibility

The Americans with Disabilities Act is broken up into three titles.

Title I covers discrimination of employers against employees. This does not apply to web projects in the scope of this document.

Title II covers public sector, specifically state and local governments and other public entities such as libraries and schools.

Title III covers private sector, specifically public accommodations and commercial facilities. For our purposes, there is no practical difference between Title II and Title III other than the entities to which it applies.

The ADA was created in 1990, before the internet was a part of everyday public life. As a result, it does not contain any mention of websites or the internet at all, and as of 2018, it has not yet been amended to do so.

What accessibility standards are you required to follow? It can get a little murky. Expect uncertainty and shifting requirements until regulations catch up to technology.

Despite this gap in the ADA, the Department of Justice has been very clear that they interpret the ADA to apply to websites. They have issued an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to send the message that changes are coming. In the meantime, several lower courts have permitted lawsuits against websites such as Target and Netflix alleging discrimination under ADA law. Some of these cases have settled out of court, some were ruled in favor of the plaintiff, and some were ruled in favor of the defendant.

No case has yet gone to the Supreme Court, so we are in a situation where there is no clear legal precedent and it is up to the judge and the jurisdiction to determine in which cases the ADA applies to websites. We know that it does apply to the websites of public government entities. We know it probably applies to the websites of large companies who directly serve the public. We can make an educated guess that it does not apply to a cooking blog written by a stay-at-home mom. Beyond that, though, the lines are murky—and they will continue to be for the next few years until the regulations catch up with the current technological landscape.

It is worth noting that despite all of the legal action that has taken place, there is no set of documented technical standards for what constitutes an accessible website under ADA law. This is in stark contrast to requirements for physical accommodations, where the law is very clear about exactly how many inches off the ground a handicap-parking sign must be mounted.

Federal standards for accessibility

The federal standards for website accessibility are outlined in Section 508 (an amendment to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973) subpart B, last revised in 2000. As a law in itself, Section 508 only applies to federal agencies and their procurement processes. It explicitly states that it does not apply to entities that receive federal funding, and the General Services Administration (GSA) website even goes so far as to say that this is “contrary to what you may read on the web.”

However, in conjunction with other laws, this is not necessarily the case in practice. Under the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 (called the AT Act), any state that receives federal grant money to promote assistive technology is required to adhere to Section 508 guidelines, at least as it applies to the assistive technology provided by the grant. And according to the US Access Board, “many states have adopted or adapted Section 508 accessibility requirements in state law.” So while it’s not completely clear when it does and does not apply, and it varies widely by state, it is nonetheless important to understand what Section 508 requires.

Following are the technical standards as they apply to websites—skipping over some requirements for unused and archaic technologies such as framesets and imagemaps:

(a) All non-decorative images must have alternative (“alt”) text which describes the image to users who are not able to view it.

(b) All multimedia content (e.g. videos) must have text captioning.

(c) All information that is displayed using color must also be discernable without color.

(d) Web pages must be readable without a CSS stylesheet.

(g, h) Data tables must have header cells marked appropriately.

(l) When using dynamic scripting (e.g. JavaScript) to accomplish a website function, ensure that the functionality is still available to users of assistive technology or that an equivalent alternative is provided.

(n) Forms must use proper markup and structure to ensure that they can be filled out by users of assistive technology.

(o) A shortcut link must be provided to allow users to skip repetitive navigation links.

Other industry standards for accessibility

Section 508 was last amended in 2000 and things have changed a lot since then. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), who are considered the thought leaders for the internet and the developers of international standards for how the web should work, have put out a set of guidelines called the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), currently on revision 2.0 (2008), whose goal is to describe what accessibility should look like in today’s web on a global scale. Despite being released in 2008, this revised set of standards was written in a broad way without reference to specific technologies in an effort to remain applicable for a very long time.

More than 2,500 accessibility complaints have been filed with the Department of Education since May 2016.

For each of its major sections, WCAG 2.0 has three priority levels of compliance: Level A (baseline), Level AA (midrange), and Level AAA (very high). These levels build on each other. Level AA includes all items from Level A, and Level AAA includes all items from Levels A and AA.

Level A is roughly equivalent to Section 508 standards.

Level AA is much more strict, but still achievable. It provides an enhanced user experience beyond Level A with additional convenience features to make a smoother browsing experience for users of assistive technology.

Level AAA is extremely difficult to fulfill, and even by the WCAG’s admission, is not a realistic standard for a complete project or site and is impossible to follow for certain types of content. Typically it would only be strictly followed when the primary audience or user is browsing with assistive technology. It effectively prohibits the use of most modern web technology.

A website only meets a compliance level if all of the criteria in that level are met. For instance, if a website meets all of Level A and part of Level AA, it is considered to be A-compliant only.

The WCAG is only a set of recommendations and has not been formally adopted as law. And the flip side of their broad approach to guidelines is that there is a lot of room for interpretation as to what constitutes technical compliance in a particular project.

Enforcement

Oversight

Depending on the type of entity, accessibility requirements are enforced by one of two federal agencies.

The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) handles accessibility compliance related to education and other public entities covered under Title II.

The U.S. Department of Justice handles essentially all other ADA compliance issues, which broadly speaking would be the entities covered under Title III.

Complaint process

Both departments have a complaint process and a subsequent investigation procedure. Not all complaints result in investigations.

Presumably, an accessibility complaint could instead be filed on the local or state level, or even directly with the organization itself. It does not necessarily need to be filed on the federal level with one of the departments above. However, the common practice among serial complainants (of whom there are several) is to go straight to the top and file them exclusively on the federal level without ever communicating their concerns with the organization itself.

False positives: issues detected that are not actually issuesFalse negatives: real accessibility issues that are not detected

Evaluation standards

It may come as a surprise that there are no legal technical standards for what constitutes having an accessible website. As a result, the complaint and resolution process is highly subjective. Most people filing complaints will use an automated site scanner to find pages that appear to be in violation, and the government agents reviewing the complaints will often use the same or similar tools to establish the validity of the complaint and escalate it into an investigation.The parties involved will rarely use actual assistive technology in their evaluations in determining whether or not a site can be properly used by people who are disabled.

This creates a problem, since it is widely known among web developers that the automated tools are fraught with both false positives (issues detected that are not actually issues) and what we would call “false negatives” (real accessibility issues that are not detected). This shortcoming is acknowledged by WebAIM, whose WAVE software is a leading accessibility scanner and the one most widely used by the Department of Education, but it is buried in its terms of use.

However, many complaints continue to get escalated to investigations with no solid rationale behind them. Often a complaint will be very vague and will not reference specific violations, only certain pages on the site that were said to be inaccessible (which, as we have noted, does not have any technical legal definition and is thus entirely subjective), and any vagueness in the initial complaint is carried through to the overseeing authority’s notice of investigation. At no point is any specific technical violation pointed out.

Resolution process

The normal practice for complaint resolution involves the organization agreeing to each of the following steps:

Perform an accessibility audit of existing web content against the adopted standard.

Correct all accessibility issues within a designated timeframe.

This is similar to settling out of court. The organization may have a strong case for why they didn’t actually violate anyone’s rights, but it’s much easier and cheaper to just agree to a few things so the problem goes away. As a result, organizations often agree to adopt standards far more strict than they would otherwise have been obligated to follow if no complaint had been filed.

2018 updates to the Case Processing Manual (CPM)

In March of 2018, the Office for Civil Rights issued a new version of the Case Processing Manual which was primarily designed to help alleviate the backlog of open accessibility complaints. They found that a disproportionate number of complaints were being filed by just three individuals, so one of the main rules they added was giving themselves the ability to dismiss the complaint if it is part of “a pattern of complaints” (Section 108(t)). They also allowed themselves the freedom to terminate investigations that were currently open if it is determined that the compliance concerns have been resolved (Section 503(a)).

As a result, based primarily on these two new rules, over 500 active investigations were able to be closed. All indicators now point to these complaints largely being a thing of the past, especially in K-12.

The important thing to remember, though, is that this is only a change in how the Office for Civil Rights has stated they will be handling the complaints from now on, in contrast to their previous policy of fully resolving each and every complaint. None of the accessibility laws themselves have changed, only the stated position on the enforcement of those laws. Accessibility is still just as big of a deal (and just as much of a legal obligation) as it was before the March updates.

Accessibility resources

DisclaimerWe aren’t attorneys. Regulations, standards and enforcement practices are going to change as often as the seasons in the next few years. This report is our current understanding and may not be entirely accurate so don’t take it as gospel. If you want an expert opinion, consult your attorney.

]]>The Pepsi Challenge: How Pepsi won the battle but lost the Challengehttps://juiceboxinteractive.com/blog/how-pepsi-won-the-battle-but-lost-the-challenge/
Sun, 29 Apr 2018 19:14:45 +0000https://juiceboxinteractive.com.staging.juiceboxint.com/?p=324The Pepsi Challenge: setting the table for a serious showdown You can gain a lot of insights when you look at ideas and tactics that created legendary marketing. Today, we’re breaking down the Pepsi Challenge. The Pepsi Challenge signaled ...

The Pepsi Challenge: setting the table for a serious showdown

You can gain a lot of insights when you look at ideas and tactics that created legendary marketing. Today, we’re breaking down the Pepsi Challenge. The Pepsi Challenge signaled a major shift in the winds of the cola landscape. In 1975, Coke was the 800 lb. gorilla in the cola market holding the #1 position for decades. A superior distribution system, effective marketing (before it was called marketing) and incredible brand loyalty created legions of happy customers.

Pepsi was the new kid on the block looking to prove something. They were hungry and willing to mix it up. A savvy exec at Pepsi came up with a bold revolutionary strategy to do just that.

That idea was the Pepsi Challenge. Pepsi went inside malls around the country and invited people to do a blind taste test between Coke and Pepsi. The results were remarkable; people picked Pepsi over Coke by a significant margin.

Pepsi happily touted the results in a TV campaign showing people, much to their own surprise, picking Pepsi.

Coke got jumpy. They felt compelled to respond. They started issuing press releases questioning the results and responded with ads saying Coke was better. They came across as defensive and paranoid. Their PR campaign denials were a disaster.

Pepsi had momentum. Coke was backpedaling, fearing a market share freefall. What was Coke’s answer?

Since everyone actually liked Pepsi better (after all that’s what the results proved), let’s be more like them and change the secret formula to copy Pepsi. Bluntly, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

That didn’t work out so well. It turned out to be a classic blunder. In response to being forced to give up the taste that many considered sacred, 400,000 people wrote letters demanding that they change it back. Coke’s answer; let’s keep the new (and call it New Coke) and bring back the old (Coke Classic).

More options—everyone’s happy, right? No: an identity crisis ensues. New Coke was sweeter like Pepsi. Insenesed, at the change Coke fans started arguing against each other (Coke vs. Coke Classic) instead of battling with all of their Pepsi drinking fans for bragging rights.

Brilliance vs. Nitwittedness

There’s a lot to be learned, both shrewd and foolish, from Coke and Pepsi’s actions.

First, the brilliant:

Pepsi coming up with the challenge. It was flat-out brilliant. Incredibly bold. Visible. They set the tone for the conversation. They had a lot to gain and, with fewer customers than Coke, not much to lose. Shrewdly, they started testing the concept out in Dallas, expanded it to a few more cities to get validation of their strategy, and ultimately rolled it out nationwide.

Lots of ugly to go around on both sides.

What can we learn? We come away with three things.

Coke was too jumpy. They overreacted emotionally out of fear. Bad move.

The brand attachment to Coke was so strong, people were willing to look past what could have been their new favorite to keep the brand because they had become so comfortable considering themselves a Coke drinker.

Ultimately, the campaign failed in its execution because it didn’t do a good enough job changing consumers’ buying habits. The creative vision behind the campaign was fantastic. It made an also-ran a household name. It was powerfully viral and certainly must have gotten people to think about switching to Pepsi. But, it failed to make consumers switch. While Pepsi eventually picked up market share, did it some from celebrity endorsements or from the Pepsi Challenge? One thing’s for sure: there wasn’t a sales spike after the Pepsi Challenge.

Pepsi’s achievement was to become the talk of every cola conversation. The failure was that all of those conversations didn’t move the sales needle.

Pepsi’s big mistake

Where did Pepsi drop the ball?

They’d come up with this brilliant, irresistible tease to get people to try their product. By an overwhelming majority—and to their own surprise—they were winning hands down. Pepsi’s critical failure was in not facilitating a complete customer conversion.

They didn’t do enough to get people to switch to Pepsi as their default cola. Imagine yourself a loyal Coke drinker, taking the Pepsi challenge, and (quite to your utter shock) picking Pepsi. You leave the mall, maybe buy a Pepsi to try it out sometime in the next few days making sure they hadn’t laced the Pepsi with some odd substance, but then you quickly shift back to your beloved Coke.

What should they have done?

They should have worked harder on getting people to make Pepsi a habit. For anyone who picked Pepsi, they should have handed them a coupon for a free case—heck, you could even give them a case from a Pepsi truck parked right outside the mall. Further, if they could collect the person’s mailing address (remember, this was before email was invented), Pepsi could mail them another coupon for a free case of Pepsi. Then, give them another, and then another.

Mail the new Pepsi drinkers another coupon every two weeks for the next three months. What’s the cost to Pepsi of eight cases of soda? Maybe $36? That’s a whole lot less than the average person spends on soda per year.

Then, after a few months, send them a nifty Michael Jackson T-shirt or a copy of his newest single (he was their celebrity brand messenger at the time). It should be something that they would use to identify with Michael Jackson and signal to the world that they’re a Michael Jackson fan and a proud Pepsi drinker.

That’s enough for people to follow through and embrace Pepsi entirely.

Game. Set. Match. Pepsi consumption skyrockets. Following this approach, Pepsi would have found those early adopter influencers who would have gotten all of their friends to switch too.

If you’re challenging the market share leader, get your competitive juices flowing, because you have to unseat them in order to succeed. Remember, your courtship with that customer doesn’t end when they give you a try; that’s only the beginning.

Drop us a line, we’ll help you iron the kinks out of your marketing strategy.

]]>A pixel is not a pixel: designing for a new generation of mobile deviceshttps://juiceboxinteractive.com/blog/a-pixel-is-not-a-pixel-designing-for-a-new-generation-of-mobile-devices/
Fri, 20 Apr 2018 00:30:39 +0000https://juiceboxinteractive.com.staging.juiceboxint.com/?p=322If you’re a web developer or designer who has lately working on projects for mobile devices, it won’t take too long before you realize that a pixel no longer equals a pixel. You noticed this because you looked up ...

]]>If you’re a web developer or designer who has lately working on projects for mobile devices, it won’t take too long before you realize that a pixel no longer equals a pixel.

You noticed this because you looked up the screen resolution of the new Galaxy S6 and were puzzled as to how it could have a larger resolution than your 1080p widescreen desktop monitor, and yet websites are still perfectly readable and seem to render at the same size as they always have. Something is literally not adding up.

For a web developer, this means that with the advent of high-density displays, you can’t count on a device’s screen resolution anymore to tell you how wide a page should be. When Apple pioneered this with their Retina display, they split the concept of pixels into hardware pixels and software pixels. A hardware pixel is an individual dot of light in the display. A software pixel, also called a CSS pixel in the web world, is a unit of measurement.

The device manufacturer determines how many hardware pixels equals one software pixel, a concept known as the device pixel ratio. With Apple’s Retina display, a single CSS pixel contained four hardware pixels (2 pixels wide and 2 pixels tall), meaning that the device pixel ratio is 2. The Samsung Galaxy S4 pushed it a step further by introducing a device pixel ratio of 3, meaning each CSS pixel contains 9 hardware pixels. The LG G3 was the first with a ratio of four, and now the Galaxy S6 is following suit. (Phone manufacturers: Before long we’re going to stop caring. Don’t be Gillette.)

A CSS pixel, on the other hand, is designed to be roughly equivalent across devices. If you load the same website on side-by-side devices with a similar physical dimensions, but different pixel ratios, the website will appear to be roughly the same visual size.

So what’s the deal? If CSS pixels haven’t really changed at all, what’s the benefit of higher pixel densities? Here are a few.

Sharper text

You’ll notice that text appears much sharper on a high-density display. The font size is the same relative to the rest of the page, but the text is drawn at the hardware pixel level. So, a font size of 14px will take up 14 CSS pixels but render at 28 hardware pixels. (The enhanced text rendering is handled automatically by the browser—you don’t need to do anything at all to take advantage of this feature.)

Sharper icons

Technically this could fall under “text”, but lately there’s been a movement to use icon fontssuch as FontAwesome to render icons instead of traditional images. The advantages include the ability to specify the color, size and hover effects via CSS so you don’t need separate images for each color variant. Essentially this is a creative and easy way to use vectors in web design that are sharp at any size, and the same high-DPI benefits apply here too. An icon-font icon will be sized with CSS pixels but rendered with hardware pixels.

High-resolution images

These are also called Retina images because the techniques were first pioneered by Apple. It involves delivering a different set of images to higher-density displays so that they render using hardware pixels instead of software pixels. This results in a much sharper image while still being fully backwards-compatible with 1:1 density screens.

How to use this feature: For standard HTML images, just use an image twice the width and height that it needs to display on the page. Then use either CSS or inline HTML to resize the image to the proper dimensions. (Also check out Retina.js as a potential solution.)

More commonly, though, you’ll be using this technique on elements with CSS background images and utilizing media queries to deliver different images based on pixel density. The following sample CSS will replace a background image with a high-resolution version suited to the device.

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/* This is the original logo. */.logo{width:197px;height:182px;/* Source image is 197px by 182px. */background:url('img/logo.png')no-repeatcentercenter;}/* This will replace the logo with a 2x version on devices with a 2:1 ratio, such as Apple devices. */@media (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 2), (min-resolution: 192dpi) { .logo{/* Source image is 394px by 364px. */background-image:url('img/logo@2x.png');
background-size:197px182px;}}/* This will replace the logo with a 3x version on devices with a 3:1 ratio, such as the Samsung Galaxy S5. */@media (-webkit-min-device-pixel-ratio: 3), (min-resolution: 288dpi) { .logo{/* Source image is 591px by 546px. */background-image:url('img/logo@3x.png');
background-size:197px182px;}}

These media are designed to target only high-density displays and will be ignored by other devices. The @2x and @3x designations are arbitrary—the image can have any filename you want, unless you’re using Retina.js—but this is a convention established by Apple which has become the standard. Note the usage of the background-size property, which is how we resize the image back down to the CSS pixel dimensions we want.

So, as a web designer, can you get away with doing things the way you always have and ignore hardware pixels entirely? Yep. All of this new display technology is fully backwards-compatible, and your stuff will still work fine on Retina displays. But that’s not the right question. Your work shouldn’t be about what you can “get away with”, but how you can take advantage of new technology to create a better product for yourself and for clients.

Right now, most sites are not taking advantage of the available high-density features. If you have an iPad, you definitely notice the difference when you come across one that does! (Check out the homepage for Dubuque Community Schools on an iPad.) Eventually, high-density optimization will be the norm as more and more devices support it, and the playing field will be leveled—but in the mean time, it’s an easy and rewarding way to distance yourself from your competitors.

Resources

If you want to learn more about optimizing for high-density displays, the following sites have some really good information.

List of displays by pixel density (mydevice.io)
This is the best resource for looking up what display densities certain devices have. It’s continually updated when new devices are released.

]]>7 keys to make your marketing committee legendaryhttps://juiceboxinteractive.com/blog/7-keys-to-make-your-marketing-committee-legendary/
Fri, 13 Apr 2018 02:20:53 +0000https://juiceboxinteractive.com.staging.juiceboxint.com/?p=209Committees are almost always challenging. They’re like the Molasses Swamp in Candyland. Sometimes you get hung up in the swamp for almost the whole game, and other times you skate right by. It all depends on a roll ...

]]>Committees are almost always challenging. They’re like the Molasses Swamp in Candyland. Sometimes you get hung up in the swamp for almost the whole game, and other times you skate right by. It all depends on a roll of the dice.

Some creative people despise working with committees to the point where they’d turn down the work just to avoid the hassle. Not me. I love them.

Here’s the thing: A committee is like a piece of salt water taffy. If you massage it, work it, and mold it just right, you’ll end up with something sweet. It’s unbelievably fulfilling to get the group thinking the same way and working in the right direction. But, there’s a real trick in nuancing the group just the right way for them to come together and create something truly legendary.

Why committees fail

“Fail” is a strong word. I’ve been working with committees for a long time, and in my experience, it’s rare that a committee fails in the classic sense of the term—that the project is aborted because the committee couldn’t come to an agreement. But I have high standards for success, so I consider it a failure when a committee compromises and settles for something less than fantastic when they’re capable of so much more.

That said, here are some of the common reasons that a committee project can fail.

Reason 1: Different design styles in your group

People have different tastes. They drive different cars, eat at different restaurants, and live in different types of homes in different parts of town. Here’s an example: in almost every instance when I’ve worked with law firms to build websites, the committee consists of three types of people: 1) the firm’s marketing team, 2) several younger attorneys who were chosen because they’re adept at using technology, and 3) a few senior members who are on the committee to ensure the younger attorneys don’t do anything idiotic. With such different backgrounds, it’s no wonder it can be so hard to get them to agree.

In almost every committee, there is someone whose sense of style froze in time about 15 years ago, as illustrated in the music they listen to or the decorative style of their house. If their favorite interior color is mauve and their music tastes include Captain and Tennille, Vanilla Ice or Cyndi Lauper, the best way to avert a train wreck is to know that up front.

Reason 2: People gravitate to their own personal design tastes

It’s inevitable that some members of the committee will project their favorite colors, style, and tastes onto the brand of the organization. One committee member prefers primary colors, for instance, so they think the creative direction of the project should follow suit. They can’t think of the company as a separate brand.

Reason 3: Passive-aggressive personalities

Passive-aggressives hold in their opinions for a long time, but when they blow, get out of the way! You can’t afford to let them keep everything bottled up too long. It creates nothing but discontent, infighting and contention—all things that guarantee failure.

Reason 4: Dominating personalities

Everyone in the committee needs to have a vote and express an opinion, but there’s often a Type-A personality that dominates the discussion. Whether it’s out of fear or exhaustion, the rest of the committee will step out of the way and allow this person to charge forward and take control of the creative direction of the project.

Reason 5: Lack of focus

A lack of clear objectives is the kiss of death for committees. What are we here to accomplish? When are we done? Are we working on something that’s meaningful? No one likes busy work. Schedule meetings only when you’ve got substantive stuff to talk about.

Reason 6: Lack of commitment

If everyone in the group isn’t committed to the process, it’s not going to end well. The few who care will end up doing the work. I learned a valuable lesson in college while I was in a market research class. The others on my team weren’t as committed to our big project (which is to say, they didn’t feel the same need to get a good grade). When I appealed to my teacher for guidance, she said that’s the way life was and I could either pick up the slack or settle for a lower grade. I wasn’t happy about picking up the slack, but didn’t have any options. Committees are class projects for grown-ups. Give assignments to those that will execute. Avoid inviting anyone to your committee if they aren’t excited to contribute.

Reason 7: The rule of thirds

The rule of thirds almost always rings true.

One-third of the committee is deeply invested laying the groundwork and has given an amazing amount of thought to what they hope to accomplish before the committee ever gets together for the first meeting. They wrote the RFP, researched best practices and identified some approaches they think will work best for their firm.

One-third of the group glanced briefly at the materials (outlines, agenda, proposals, RFP) before the meeting.

The remaining one-third shows up not having done any advance preparation. They haven’t reviewed any of the materials or given it any thought—this meeting was just the next item on their calendar for the day.

Many times it’s this last group that is the most outspoken because they’re type-A, driven and busy. Not good.

How to succeed with committees

1. Define success before you start.

You might not know exactly what the finished product will look like, but you need to understand what will define success.

2. Identify your goals and metrics.

You can’t define success unless you identify goals and metrics. Whether it’s a marketing initiative or a website, identify goals and get everyone to buy into them. You need to have big, tangible goals as well as smaller, stepping-stone goals that get you there. If you’re a business, your ultimate goals are usually wrapped around revenue generation, talent acquisition or customer support. Smaller goals to get you there should be built around engagement, number of visitors, depth/breadth of relationships (social media engagement, time on page, how often they read your blog), how many potential clients you’re talking to, etc. Doing this is mapping out your interaction design engagement strategies.

3. Point everyone in the same direction before handing out the oars.

At Juicebox, we do some pretty unique, clever and creative things to create cohesion, prompt participation, and make the experience fun, while at the same time working to mediate potential personality conflicts before they erupt. Do this and you avoid the Molasses Swamp.

4. Pick a vendor that understands how to work with committees.

If an agency you’re considering seems a little arrogant or aloof when you’re interviewing them, how will they react when you committee doesn’t agree with their approach? They’re going to get testy, defensive and arrogant. You’re just asking for trouble.

5. Recognize that people aren’t always experienced at what they’re doing on the committee.

In a creative project such as a website, the committee members are asked to evaluate the design, work through branding elements, and craft the message through written content. Unless they work in the marketing department, this isn’t the type of thing they do every day. Most committee participants are practicing law, running operations for a company, building a product, or trying hire and manage a workforce. They need to be nurtured and must be allowed to evolve in their thinking during the project. We do something amazingly unique in this regard (see house rule #2).

6. Maintain open and honest communication.

Everyone needs to be able to share their opinion openly. If you know that some people aren’t going to get along, break the group into smaller subgroups until those people can speak more openly. Once they’ve had a chance to develop and refine their thoughts, it’s easier for them to communicate with the people they don’t see eye to eye with. Have them work out their differences in a small session and then bring the larger group back together. When committee members disagree, their frustrations don’t disappear—they fester.

7. Avoid email to discuss anything important.

One problem with email is that it doesn’t convey emotion well and can be easily misinterpreted. If you’ve got something important to say that could potentially be misunderstood, it’s better to talk to someone in person. The other problem with email is that it’s easy to ignore. It’s all too common that a group email will be sent to the committee asking for everyone’s opinion, but only one or two people will respond with any insight.

We’ve put a lot of work into the process that we take committees through, so if you need some help, just call us. We’ll bring the juiceboxes.

]]>Five resolutions that make a differencehttps://juiceboxinteractive.com/blog/five-resolutions-that-make-a-difference/
Thu, 05 Apr 2018 18:49:29 +0000https://juiceboxinteractive.com.staging.juiceboxint.com/?p=320Many people start their new year off by making a list of resolutions. All too often, that list starts with the undone items from the last year—which probably won’t get done this year, either. It’s time to rethink ...

]]>Many people start their new year off by making a list of resolutions. All too often, that list starts with the undone items from the last year—which probably won’t get done this year, either. It’s time to rethink your resolutions. Here are five unexpected things that will produce insights and results for 2018.

1. Where will your growth come from?

2. Rethink CRM.

Rethink how you’re handling CRM (customer relationship management). Make it smaller, lighter and more efficient. Increasingly, as CRM tools are being tasked with keeping track of more functions, they’re becoming bloated with serious amounts of data. That extra baggage weighs them down and turns CRM into an albatross. Everyone hates it—salespeople, marketing, and operations. Reevaluate what’s essential to track. For those things, you do need to keep but are less important, figure out how to organize them intelligently so you don’t create a mess.

3. Get your message where there is no clutter.

Challenge yourself to do this one time this year: get your message where there is zero noise from other messages. And I mean total silence—no clutter.

Here are a couple of freebies. If you’re going to be at a trade show, get some custom-printed toilet paper—you’ll have someone’s undivided attention. Or put some giant structure on top of your building. (If you’ve noticed a 15-foot-tall drinking straw on the roof of a building on 3rd Street, we can neither confirm nor deny our involvement).

Your message, delivery medium, and even the location should be totally unexpected for maximum effect.

4. Try a wild tactic you’ve never done before.

Too many marketers simply tweak last year’s campaign, or they mistakenly believe that originality and creativity mean doing the latest trendy thing (which, coincidentally, several of their competitors are trying to do as well).

You don’t have to spend a lot of money in the execution, but you’ve got to spend enough to give it the opportunity to succeed. It will help you break out of your rut, and you may be surprised at how successful this new approach turns out to be.

5. Reconsider your entire strategy.

Examine every step. Rethink every assumption. Reconsider every tactic.

Your clients are changing frequently: the things that capture their attention, the technology they use, and especially the way they make decisions. So are your competitors.

And again: don’t just rehash what you think you know about them from last year. Dig. And then keep digging. Figure out what they’re about, and how they’ve changed. Then, recognize how you can connect (or reconnect) with them.

Most people fail at this because they don’t dig far enough. Get to work!

]]>Where will your growth come from?https://juiceboxinteractive.com/blog/where-will-your-growth-come-from/
Wed, 28 Mar 2018 19:14:07 +0000https://juiceboxinteractive.com.staging.juiceboxint.com/?p=329Revenue forecasting is a hassle for most organizations, not to mention an inexact science. Most people don’t have a formula to forecast growth. They make up a number (usually a fairly optimistic number) and try to manage to that ...

]]>Revenue forecasting is a hassle for most organizations, not to mention an inexact science. Most people don’t have a formula to forecast growth. They make up a number (usually a fairly optimistic number) and try to manage to that number.

Years ago, I had a sales manager whose method of revenue forecasting was simple. He’d take the revenue number he had to produce, divide it by the amount of sales he thought each rep could generate, and end up with a number that told him how many new reps he needed to hire. He didn’t spend time considering what the market share potential was for the firm with their existing product and services mix. His job was to deliver a number. Sound familiar? So he put a few more people on the payroll and told them to reel in as many fish as they could, but without adding a new fishing pond or bait or going after any new types of fish.

That kind of math never works. If, for example, all of those reps were selling in the same geographic region, as was the case in that situation, he could be over-saturating the market by adding the new sales reps. If you find yourself in this scenario, before you jump to the same conclusion, step back and analyze the situation.

To make things more interesting, all of the quotas for the existing sales team were bumped up significantly—at least 35% across the board. So what happened when new reps were added? Anxiety over higher quotas. Infighting. Turf wars over prospect lists, zip codes and company names.

In this digital age of selling, the quest for any company should be to significantly increase the sales revenue per employee. To do that, though, you need to have an effective lead generation system that intelligently maps out your engagement process and cultivates prospects through your funnel.

4 questions that matter

Let me share four great questions we ask our clients in the revenue forecasting process. The answers to those questions will define your marketing tactics.

Before we get to those questions, first you’ve got to determine how much you want to grow—either in terms of a percentage growth rate or a dollar amount of revenue. Ideally, lots of external factors should weigh into arriving at that number including your market, the relative strength of your competition, and your product mix and any new products that you have in your pipeline just to name a few. However, most organizations find it easier to pick a number (e.g. 20% growth rate) and then back into that number. That’s okay too—we can work with that.

After you’ve figured out your growth target, these questions will begin to outline where your growth will come from. Here are the questions: Are you going to…

Sell more of the same stuff to the same people?

Sell new stuff to the same people?

Sell the same stuff to new people?

Sell new stuff to new people?

You’ll employ different tactics for each scenario. I’ll explain.

#1: Sell more of the same stuff to the same people

In this scenario, you need to focus on penetrating more deeply into your existing clients with the same products. To succeed in this scenario you need to either (1) have a better sales force, (2) do a better job of execution (delivery, timeliness, etc.), (3) be cheaper, or (4) have a better product or one that is more uniquely suited to your prospects. Your marketing should support which of these items is your means of differentiation. If you’re differentiating on cost, don’t jump in before you’ve thought through your decision. Being cheaper doesn’t create long-term brand loyalty. If you’re putting your faith in your sales force, attract the best, pay them well, and give them tools to win.

#2: Sell new stuff to the same people

In this scenario, we’re looking at adding revenue by introducing new products into your mix. If this is where some of your growth will be found, you need to have marketing and sales activities to encourage adoption of your new products by your existing customers. Keep in mind that that unless you’re adding an entirely new product they don’t currently use, you’re going to have to displace a current vendor.

Plan your marketing tactics accordingly. Some customers might switch to you if you have a better relationship with them. Others will demand a better product: one that is more perfectly suited for their needs, is less expensive, or any of the other ways that a product differentiates itself.

One last thing to keep in mind as a marketer. A keen sales rep won’t want to put the relationship of the client at risk if selling an new, unproven product could cause them to lose the account. Your first step should be to sell the product internally and do whatever it takes to make those initial sales incredibly successful. Plan your marketing tactics accordingly. Bundle your products, when appropriate, to encourage adoption and avoid saddling your new products with the label of being cheap.

#3: Sell the same stuff to new people

You’re saying it’s time to expand into new territory. Decide if that expansion means that: (1) you’re growing your market share in your existing territory with the same profile of clients you’re been currently selling to, or (2) moving up or down the food chain for customer size in your current marketplace, or (3) expanding to new territory.

Your tactics should be different for each scenario. Whether it’s brand building or gaining credibility as you move up or down the food chain, make sure you’re focused on the right activities to generate leads and sales.

#4: Sell new stuff to new people

This is the most tricky scenario because your expanding into new realms with new products. Most of the time, this is the most difficult type of growth because you have few, if any, existing relationships to leverage in propelling your growth. Every established company started out this way at one time, so if you’ve done it once you can do it again. But in some ways, you’ll have to think like a startup, and for many companies this stage was so long ago that they’ve forgotten what it’s like.

Your first step should be to establish your brand and define your strengths. Remember, the first few clients will be the most challenging to find. Thrill them with your product or service and they’ll lead to more and more business.

To wrap it up, if you’re going to grow, it’s by picking one or more of these scenarios. Ideally, your mid-term growth plans should have a plan for each scenario. Every business should always be looking for new customers in new areas with the right new products to ensure their long-term viability. That creates energy and vitality within every company and gives you momentum. One critical thing, though, is to make sure that your marketing plans and sales rep compensation plans are aligned so that both marketing and sales have the right incentives to produce the same outcome. Once you define how you intend to grow, your tactics will fall into place.